Adventures in Enterprise Computing

No Java in Mac OS X Leopard Preview Pages

As I have pointed out in a previous post, Apple’s commitment to the Java platform appears to be dwindling. Apple has updated their Leopard Preview page to show some of the previously unannounced new features of the OS. What’s suspiciously missing in the features section is any mention of Java 6, or even any mention of Java at all. Contrast this to the “Advanced Technology” section of the Tiger overview page, and you’ll see a very specific mention of Java 5. I am now starting to be very concerned about the state of Java on the Mac.

Of course, this could all go another way completely and Apple could submit their implementation to the OpenJDK or Apache Harmony projects.

The description reads as follows:
Listen as members of Apple’s Java engineering team show you how to add polish to your Java application. Learn how to use resolution-independent artwork, adopt custom Aqua controls from within Swing, and how to open documents from the Finder. You will also discover tricks for integrating toolkits such as SWT and Cocoa within your application, and find out if your application should go 64-bit. This session covers the advanced features you need to maximize the features of Java on Mac OS X Leopard.

The description reads as follows:
Listen as members of Apple’s Java engineering team show you how to add polish to your Java application. Learn how to use resolution-independent artwork, adopt custom Aqua controls from within Swing, and how to open documents from the Finder. You will also discover tricks for integrating toolkits such as SWT and Cocoa within your application, and find out if your application should go 64-bit. This session covers the advanced features you need to maximize the features of Java on Mac OS X Leopard.

I do recall the Jobs quote when being asked about Java support in the iPhone. If the sentiment has made it’s way to the Mac, it’s really too bad. However, it isn’t outside the realm of possibilities that Apple could submit their JDK code base to the OpenJDK project. This would free Apple from supporting Java directly, yet still allowing Java to run on the Mac. This would be preferable than dropping Java cold turkey, like it seems they are doing.

I do recall the Jobs quote when being asked about Java support in the iPhone. If the sentiment has made it’s way to the Mac, it’s really too bad. However, it isn’t outside the realm of possibilities that Apple could submit their JDK code base to the OpenJDK project. This would free Apple from supporting Java directly, yet still allowing Java to run on the Mac. This would be preferable than dropping Java cold turkey, like it seems they are doing.